Snowleg

by Nicholas Shakespeare

When sixteen-year-old Peter Hithersay discovers that his father is not the affable Englishman married to his mother, but an East German political dissident with whom she had a brief affair in the 1960s, he abandons Winchester for Leipzig in search of his past. There he encounters a lovely young woman who is beginning to question the way her society is governed, and Peter falls immediately in love with her. But their romance ends quickly and badly when his scheme to smuggle her out of the country goes awry, and he returns to England, only to spend the next nineteen years in a desultory career and a series of perfunctory affairs.

When the two Germanies are reunited, Peter goes back to look for the woman he has never stopped loving. But the only clues he has are the nickname he gave her, Snowleg, and the relentless archives of the state that drove them apart.

Nicholas Shakespeare is on his home ground in this beautifully written, informed, sensitive story about the unassailable dictates of love and politics.

Genres: Fiction, Romance, Historical Fiction, Novels, 21st Century, Germany, British Literature

386 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2004

About the author

Nicholas William Richmond Shakespeare is a English novelist and biographer.

Born to a diplomat, Nicholas Shakespeare grew up in the Far East and in South America. He was educated at the Dragon School preparatory school in Oxford, then at Winchester College and at Magdalene College, Cambridge. He worked as a journalist for BBC television and then on The Times as assistant arts and literary editor. From 1988 to 1991 he was literary editor of The Daily Telegraph and The Sunday Telegraph.

Since 2000, Shakespeare has been Patron of the Anita Goulden Trust, helping children in the Peruvian city of Piura. The UK-based charity was set up following an article that Shakespeare wrote for the Daily Telegraph magazine, which raised more than £350,000.

He is a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. He is married with two small boys and currently lives in Oxford.

Reviews

[Anjar · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's a love story, actually.

Peter grew up in a typical English family, with parents and a sister. But when Peter was 17 years old, her mother told him that he was actually a half German. His real father was an East German, whom his mother met for only a very brief of time.
From then on, Peter life changed. He went to East Germany to find about his father he didn't even know anything about. There he met a girl whom he called Snowleg, fell in love, but had to leave behind.

I like this novel, because in spite of the chaos, there is still a flicker of hope somewhere along the way. This journey turns to be a very very long journey for Peter when he returns again for the second time... 20 years later.

[Jayne Charles · Rating 3 out of 5]

This novel visits East Germany before and after reunification, and evokes the atmosphere, the sights and sounds of the time, very successfully. In it, Peter – an English student - learns his father is not the man who brought him up but an unnamed East German political prisoner. This changes his life and he sets out to “become” German, learning the language, qualifying as a doctor in West Germany. The plot concerns his search for his father, and a fleeting relationship with a girl he meets on a trip to Leipzig and later tries to trace once the wall has come down.

Outside of the main plot, things happen – in fact this is a long, very densely packed book, but the plot was what kept me reading through the middle sections where little seemed to be achieved towards the story’s aims. I am sure the writing was rich in metaphor, and a second reading might well bring this to the fore. What I did find as the book progressed was reason after reason not to like Peter very much – his treatment of his family back home, his relationships with women in general...and yet I did want him to succeed in his quest.

After a long period of zero progress, Peter finally makes a breakthrough and a rapid rifle-fire of revelation after revelation threatened to leave me confused. But there is something about this novel that is compelling – I suspect a year after reading it I will struggle to recall many plot details but when you are in the moment it demands your attention. Reaching the end I was unsure whether I was in awe of the author’s edge of the seat writing, or cross with him for putting me through the wringer.

[Donna · Rating 4 out of 5]

When I first started to read this book, I thought it wasn't going to be one that I liked. But as I got deeper into the book, I find that I wanted to know more about the characters. It just had a slow start.

Peter is looking for "Snowleg", the girl he met in Leipzig and had a brief affair with. He was smitten with her and fell in love. But he did a shameful thing and denied that he knew her. As Peter grows and continues his studies to be a doctor and with all his "love" affairs, he still wants to know what happened to Snowleg; as that is the only name he knew her by. It is a story of love and politics.

Does he find Snowleg? Well....... read to find out.

[Glyn Pope · Rating 3 out of 5]

Parts of this novel were good. Others were not. I don't think it captured the atmosphere of eastern Germany. Or the west for that matter. I liked the opening pages. I started to dislike it when Rodney started to speak to his father-in-law in an offensive way.
I didn't really care about any of the characters least of all Peter who was just a sexist bore/boar.
The author attempts to be funny and fails.
For it to be longlisted for the 2004 Booker prize shows there must have been a drought of books that year.
Mind you are these prizes really worth anything? Only 'pop' wins.

[Al Maki · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the most important myths describing the adult male in Occidental society, in my opinion, is Eugene Onegin. This is a great telling of that story. This is a profound and beautiful book.

[Matthew · Rating 2 out of 5]

A book group read.

Too tedious & contrived - abandoned the task!

[Deanna Derosa · Rating 5 out of 5]

An engaging book about living under Stasi rule in East Berlin. It's a blend of history, romance, and the politics of the era. I recommend it.

[Moureco · Rating 5 out of 5]

Não esperava tal volume, apesar de já ter lido deste autor "A Paixão de Elena Silves" e as 769 páginas da biografia de Bruce Chatwin (escritor de excepção e ser humano execrável). Foi delicioso! Passavam as páginas e custava abandoná-lo à noite de tal forma me envolvi na vida deste rapaz que descobre aos 16 anos ser filho de uma relação fortuita da sua mãe inglesa com um preso político foragido, na Alemanha Democrática em plena guerra fria. Querem saber mais? Lê-se de um fôlego.

Isto é o que a editora seleccionou para a banda lateral do livro: "Quando Peter Hithersay descobre aos 16 anos que o pai não é o afável inglês que está casado com a sua mãe e sim um dissidente político da Alemanha do Leste com quem ela teve um romance fugaz na década de 1960, decide ir a Leipzig em busca do seu passado. Durante a sua breve incursão ao outro lado da Cortina de Ferro, apaixona-se por uma bela jovem que está a despertar politicamente e a questionar o modo como o seu país é governado. A sua situação comove-o, o seu amor excita-o, mas ele tem demasiado medo para a ajudar. De regresso ao seu país, Peter vai passar dezanove anos a fingir que não a ama, até que um dia, já com a Alemanha reunificada, não consegue continuar a reprimir os seus sentimentos e decide voltar e procurá-la. Mas quem é ela agora, como é que o facto de um dia a ter abandonado afectou a sua vida e como poderá encontrá-la? As suas únicas pistas são a alcunha dela – Snowleg – e os arquivos do Estado que os separou."

[Belinda Carvalho · Rating 2 out of 5]

Mixed feelings about this improbable, white male centred novel which examines guilt and effects of the East German regime. It is cheesy, full of cliches and amateur sections BUT has some redeeming features:
1) it's an entertaining read( well suited to holidays), and despite some of the sad content you can read quickly.
2) the story of the encounter with Snowleg, underpinning the novel is lovely, intriguing and sad. I really wanted to find out about what happened to this mysterious young lady trapped behind the Berlin Wall
3) there are a lack of novels, particularly in the Anglosphere, set in East Germany (particularly Leipzig) looking at the East german regime. I really liked this element and felt this was where it was strongest (the scenes around Thomaskirche and the Auerbach's Keller were particularly enjoyable. It was well-researched)
4) I felt it did come together and there was beautiful symmetry in how the ends were tied up

There were a lot of negatives and tangents though. We seemed to get Peter'sw entire, broning unnecessary life story. Characters like Bettina and the nurses he worked with ? Ahh give me a break. It was really convoluted and long in this way. Peter himself was unbelievably irritating and indulgent. I am surpuised anyone who was close to him didn't go comepletely no contact. Snowleg had a lucky escape .
It could have been way more artisitically written. I don't know what happened there. Worth a read if you are interested in the subject matter, as I am, but otherwise I'd avoid.

[Rosslyn]

Really enjoyed this book about coming to terms with who you are and the (possible) consequences of what you have done. Set at the time of East/West Germany and the Berlin wall it follows the journey of one man who, after a startling discovery on his 16th birthday, is trying to discover his roots. This takes him acroos the channel and behind the wall where his brief visit has a knock on effect which haunts him into middle age. Needing to find redemption he once again makes the journey of his youth.

[Caroline · Rating 2 out of 5]

If you got into the recent German film "The Lives of Others" ("Das Leben der Anderen"), you should definitely pick up this book to get another taste of life under the Stasi. It was cool to read it while hanging out in the Leipzig of today, though I'm not sure how great it is as a novel, independent of its subject matter.

[Herman · Rating 2 out of 5]

I had high expectations for a book written by someone named "Shakespeare", and I was very dissapointed. There are just so many problems with this book - dull characters, poor writing, bad plot devices, a couple of historical errors, a really uninteresting story. Oh dear. It WAS easy to read though.

[Henry Jefferies · Rating 5 out of 5]

Though the central character is incredibly self-centred and very difficult to relate to, I found this book very compelling. I was hooked to the very last line. This is the most engaging book I have read in a decade. I heartily recommend it.

[Katy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Picked this up in a charity book shop, it sounded interesting and I do enjoy books set in communist Europe/Russia. It was going to be a hit or a miss, and I was definitey a hit! Loved this novel, a great world to get lost in. And I loved Shakespeare as an author. I intend to read more!

[Siobhan · Rating 1 out of 5]

There are so many annoying mistakes in this book, that I had to stop reading it.

[Helen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ok not as good as Secrets of the Sea which was very good

[Deborah · Rating 2 out of 5]

Well ...um..... Yeah glad I didn't have to pay for it

[Carmen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Whenever somebody asks me "what's your favourite book." I reply: "Snowleg. Snowleg is my favourite book".

[Eve Carroll · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved the story line and was completely engrossed in the characters. Would definitely recommend

[Mike Finn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent - the aftermath of political divide. Loose ends caused by the East West Germany split and rejoining.

[William Falo · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved the story and the characters, but hoped for more from the ending. I still liked the book and the main character. 4.5 stars

[Christine · Rating 4 out of 5]

A search for his roots leads the protagonist into a self-search. Post-war Germany provides an interesting setting.

[Michelle Barker · Rating 2 out of 5]

Mostly dull. The whole plot hinges on a huge coincidence. I would have put it down if I hadn't been reading for setting.

[Faye Maclennan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great read

[Nance · Rating 3 out of 5]

Long......

[Bronwyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

amazing suspense throughout the book, but the ending really frustrated me and ruined the whole story. I wanted to throw the book across the room.

[Therése Mellby · Rating 2 out of 5]

Årets första hyllvärmare utläst. Inget vidare bra bok.

[Siobhan Markwell · Rating 2 out of 5]

Shakespeare is a truly accomplished novelist and biographer without a doubt. Snowleg is beautifully structured and full of satisfying sentences. Even so, I found myself struggling through the novel. Peter, a boarding school pupil, learns from his mother on his sixteenth birthday that the man he calls father is, in fact his step-father and his biological father is an East German political prisoner his mother met only once during a trip to develop her budding musical talent. This discovery is more than disconcerting and leads to some sustained low-level bullying at his minor public school, where the pupils engage in some pretty dated German-bashing and refer constantly to the Bosch, the war and other anti-Hun tropes that read as a little dated in the twenty-twenties. If memory serves me well, they might have read as a little dated even in the year of publication, 2004. This theme in the novel, the links rivalries and differences between England and Germany is interesting but one that might have read better in the 1970s than at the turn of the millennium. Few people in contemporary Britain have direct experience of the war or even parents who did. This makes the attitudes of the English and German characters to each other read as a strange historical fiction now and a fiction that's uncomfortable reading and sounds sadly racist. In any event, the school bullying scars Peter and leads to the personal mistakes that form the novel's later plotlines.

In his twenties and now living in West Germany, Peter has his own fleeting romantic encounter across the iron curtain and this creates an opportunity for some interesting exploration of what it meant to live under the Stasi jackboot, constantly in fear of its ubiquitous web of informers. However, Peter just can't overcome an obsession with his East German one-night stand and this preoccupation is less than convincing. It does set up a psychological fault line though, which consigns all his subsequent romantic encounters to failure. Peter's brutally basic sexism was a barrier to this reader forming even a passing affection for him. Without even a very slender thread of likeability in the main character, the four hundred pages that followed become a bit of a chore.

I loved Shakespeare's biography of Bruce Chatwin, unforgiving and iconoclastic as it was so I hope his other highly-rated novels prove to be more enjoyable. I will get round to them. One day.

[Isabelle Kennedy-Grimes · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was not at all what I expected. The writing was truly admirable with evocatively constructed metaphors throughout which made me really want to take my time reading it. I would not, however call this a romantic story.

Once I accepted the fact that the male protagonist is actually very troubled and incapable of being in love with the woman he pursues, I really enjoyed observing his behaviour and found him a fascinating character to follow. The plot did lag a fair bit in the latter half and I didn’t feel invested enough in Peter and Snowleg’s relationship - in part due to the fact that Peter isn’t a very nice character and partly because they spent 3 days together - so I wasn’t all that bothered about him finding her again. Hence the 4 stars. I did like the ending though :)

[Jude Hayland · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you enjoyed earlier Douglas Kennedy novels you will enjoy this. A compelling setting and plot - sometimes coincide plays rather a large part but then it can in real life too! It’s definitely a very interesting and readable story and I loved the settings and the author’s recent historical knowledge clearly in evidence